May 27, 2008

Garden Notes: Memorial Day Weekend Edition

We've had so much rain lately that everything is green and growing like crazy. I know it won't last, but I sure am enjoying it now. We spent most of the holiday weekend working in the yard, but I did have some time for knitting, including--taDAAAAA!--rescuing these Broadripples from my WIP pile. I started these over a year ago, shortly after learning to knit socks. I don't remember why I put them down, exactly. Probably I just got interested in something else. Anyway, I thought I had only the toe of the second sock to go, but discovered a small mistake. So I ripped the foot back, re-knit, and finished them this morning. Yay! I wish I'd knit the foot a little longer, but it's not a big deal since Cascade Fixation is so stretchy. I love the springy colors and how they kind of go with the colors that are appearing in the back yard as various perennials begin to bloom. Like these peonies. Even before the flowers open, the buds provide little balls of color. And lots of ants--which might have attracted this guy,

although I suspect he was more interested in all the worms I unearthed as I was working. I don't know if it was the SAME robin following me around all day. All I can say is that every time I looked around A robin wasn't far off, and he had a beak full of worms. We seem to have lots of earthworms this year, and I'm taking that as a sign that our efforts to improve the soil are working.

Katie doesn't bother birds foraging around in the grass (maybe because she's used to our parakeets Rocky and Gino). But she's definitely interested in our resident chipmunk. He's way too fast for her, but that doesn't stop her from trying.